Revolut services still operational in Ireland despite axing Irish business hub

However, this does not mean that Irish e-banking users will no longer have access to Revolut and its features.

The fintech company, which is headquartered in London but licensed as a bank in Lithuania, will continue to serve its nearly two million customers in Ireland, while products and services will continue to be managed from Lithuania.

Revolut bosses had originally planned to implement an east/west strategy in which western European operations would be run from Dublin while western European operations would be run out of Lithuania.

Revolut Payments Ireland was intended to operate the Irish licences, once they were authorised, and Revolut’s Western European customers were going to be migrated over.

However, after a two-year spend of about €4m on hiring and operational set-up, the strategy was dumped.

Sources told the Irish Independent that the company’s Irish operation has been downgraded in importance within the wider group after it was left with just one director for most of 2022 and missed a September 30 deadline to file its annual return with the Companies Registration Office.

Revolut Bank chief executive Joseph Heneghan is the only board member remaining after five other directors were let go earlier this year following the withdrawal of Revolut’s application to be licensed by the Central Bank of Ireland.

About 60 employees – mostly in sales, marketing and support – remain in Dublin, but prospects for expansion are limited, the sources said.

“As was widely reported at the time, in February 2022 Revolut decided to serve its Irish customers using its new European full banking licence, rather than via the Irish e-money licence,” a spokesperson said.

"This meant we were able to offer customers in Ireland new credit products, including personal loans, as well as a bank account backed by a deposit guarantee scheme.”

Plans for a new Revolut business hub in Ireland began to crumble in December 2021 when the company was awarded a banking licence by Lithuania’s central bank.

At the time, Revolut had already been waiting 30 months for authorisation as an electronic money institution and retail intermediary.

Sources said the company, founded by Nikolay Storonsky, eventually grew frustrated with waiting for the process with the Central Bank of Ireland to cooperate, so it went in a different direction.

The digital finance firm is now passporting banking services to various European markets using just its status as a Lithuanian bank.